The Limits

"I don't know how much longer I can take this.", Elisa would have muttered those words only to herself were it not for her virtual buddy, Peter. Peter was her tag along. Everywhere she went, she made sure Peter followed. Elisa found Peter many months earlier while rummaging through an old, long abandoned robotics workshop. Elisa was a clever and brilliant woman, so it was only a matter of short time before she had figured out how to activate Peter through the embedded controls of the otherwise ordinary pair of glasses. Peter was an artificial intelligence whose only visible body was that of the glasses that were now a semi-permanent fixture settled on the bridge of Elisa's nose. Peter responded to her complaint through the tiny ear wire that was bent in place around her ear from the back of her computerized spectacles, "I assume you are referring to the heat.". It paused for a moment before continuing, "Your vitals show the onset of heat exhaustion. You need to take a break, Elisa". Elisa wiped her quivering hand across the slick, damp surface of her heated forehead. Beads of sweat raced down the sides of her face and across the wetlands of her body. The sun was scorching, mocking her as its relentless onslaught of ultra-violet rays bombarded her.